Dallas Stars: Ranking Each Of Jim Nill’s Five Stars Teams

4. The 2014-15 Dallas Stars

Here’s another installment in the category of “go in with high expectations that are quickly crushed.” The 2014-15 Dallas Stars started their year with a lot of promise but finished it up with game 82.

Record: 41-31-10 (92 points)

Finished: 6th in Central Division, 10th in Western Conference

Made playoffs/missed playoffs by: Missed by five points

It was May 2014. The Stars had just been knocked out of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and yet, somehow, the franchise was riding a wave of excitement. Though their playoff run had fallen much too short, they were simply happy to have been there.

It was the first time in five seasons that the Stars had tasted postseason action, and both the team and their fans were quite happy to have had the opportunity. Lindy Ruff had led a ragtag group with a balanced mixture of veteran talent and youthful speed to a playoff spot. At that point, anything seemed possible and Nill looked like a genius in his first year as GM. But now they knew that they were good enough to get there, so the challenge to build another competitor began.

Nill wasted no time in aiming to land some big fishes in preparation for the 2014-15 season. And on July 1, it all went down. Nill traded for veteran center Jason Spezza and signed Ales Hemsky and Patrick Eaves to bolster the offense. The Stars quickly looked to be early favorites to not only get into the playoffs, but also compete for a Cup.

But Nill forgot about one thing: his defense. After a year of trusting a somewhat shaky defensive group, the Stars fell victim to collapsing from within on their blue line. Instead of adding a veteran during free agency, Dallas trusted their young guns. That turned out to be a bad move.

While the rise of John Klingberg‘s stardom began in Nov. 2014 and they dealt Brenden Dillon for Jason Demers in an effort to balance out their handedness, the defense simply could not keep up. Jordie Benn had a catastrophic season, there was no consistency in the Stars’ bottom pairing, and none of their young players stepped up besides Klingberg.

Dallas finished 26th in the NHL in goals against at 3.13 per game. However, their offense turned out to be the second best in the league with 3.13 goals per game. In other words, their horrible defense leveled out their spectacular offense.

The Stars were eliminated with a week to go in the regular season and rattled off four straight wins to close out the year. That included a 4-1 win over Nashville in game 82 that also saw Jamie Benn clinch the franchise’s first Art Ross Trophy.

There were some bright spots in the Stars’ 2014-15 campaign, but two separate six-game losing streaks and a few losses were Dallas gave up 5+ goals were too glaring to let the team pass on. The high expectations were not met and the Stars could not answer the bell as the NHL passed them up.

It was a disappointing season that followed a season filled with hope. And with that, Nill endured another offseason of significant change.